Verizon may be close to selling $10 billion in wireline assets to Frontier Communications

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO
(Reuters) - Verizon Communications is close to selling wireline
assets worth $10 billion to regional telephone operator Frontier
Communications Corp, a person familiar with the matter said on
Wednesday.

The largest U.S. carrier by subscribers, Verizon has been
investing heavily in growing its wireless business while reducing
spend on its broadband Internet and telephone services. Verizon
has been exploring steps to speed up its debt repayment in recent
months.

The companies did a similar deal in 2009, when Verizon sold 4.8
million rural phone lines to Frontier for $8.6 billion in stock
and cash, to do away with that business and focus on wireless and
broadband services.

A Verizon spokesman declined to comment while a representative
for Frontier could not be reached.

Verizon purchased 181 licenses worth $10.4 billion in a
government sale of wireless airwaves for mobile data that closed
last week. That came on top of $130 billion it spent in 2013 to
buy from Vodafone the 45 percent in its wireless unit that it did
not already own.

The wireline assets being sold to Frontier are the latest in a
series of non-core assets Verizon has sold in recent months. It
is also looking to sell $5 billion in wireless towers, Reuters
previously reported.

Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said on a January call with
investors that "there are certain assets on the wireline side
that we think would be better off in somebody else's hands so we
can focus our energy in a little bit more narrow geography."

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Verizon is close to
selling the wireline assets to Frontier on Wednesday.

(Editing by Christian
Plumb)

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